Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-06-05
THE EARLY HAWAIlANS.
Gladiatorial Sports-Traveling Convey
anccs-The Savage Can Can.

Hhfts-lhe savage tah tau.
Away back in what may he termed the
prehistoric times of the islands Kane
hameha | was the great cleftan, the
Napoleon of the islands. He rose from
the position of common fighting man
in the ranks to be the head chief. and
afterward. by conquest, king of the en-
tire group, which he consolidated under
one government, with himself at the
head. Personal prowess was the critic
rion of greatness. The Hawaiians fought
with spear club and sling. Kamehameha
was in an extraordinary degree dexter
Gus with the spear. With it he could
ward off six spears or javelins thrown at
him simultaneously. Instances of great
muscular strength and activity were not
uncommon among tie native islanders.
They had famous boxers. and part of
their games consisted in gladiatoral con-
tests-boXing and wrestling. The favor
lite blow of the boxer was a quick. sharp
hit with the fist, which broke the upper
arm of his antagonist, and the contest
frequently ended by the victor Selling
the body of the vanquished and. with a
wrench across his knee, breaking the
spinal column. OF course that would be
the victims last battle.
Communication between remote parts
of an island was by trained runners, and
as there was no kind of writing what
over, either hieroglyphic or symbolic.
messages were delivered verbally. so
that the couriers had to have good MEM
cries as well as light and active limbs.
! The calling of the courier was hereditary.
descending from generation to genera
| ton. Another class who served the
public were trained porters or carriers.
who carried articles or persons on their
shoulders from place to place. The
chiefs always travelled by these convey
ances. As a rule the chiefs were heavy
and lazy men. 1t is related of one that
his delight was in making his porter
scale almost impossible activities with
him on his shoulders. One time the Dor
ter, staggering under the weight of his
royal burden, went over the brink of a
precipice and the king and his carrier
were both killed. Communication be-
tween the islands was by frail canoes.
but the Hawaiians were so dexterous in
their management and so fearless that
they frequently made long and tenn
pestuous voyages, rarely meeting with
fatal accident. More than this. they
We're nearer being amphibious than any
other known members of the human
race.
Mr.. Clarke has himself timed them
when they have been recovering goods
from the bottom of the bay, in there faith
oms of water, and has seen them remain
under water at work four minutes and
fifteen seconds, then ascending to the sur
face. catch single breath, go down again
and finish the work, which required three
minutes and a half longer. and on coming
up they would swim away to the raft as
if they had made no exertion whatever
One of their favorite amusements is riding
the surf. For this they use surf board
five or six feet long, and they curvette
like seals among the breakers Although
they have no snow on the islands they
have sleds, and tobogganing on the steep
activities covered with slippery pele grass
was another popular pastime among the
aborigines. Their sled was made of two
poles of hard wood, very smooth, curved
up little at the ends, and bound with
bark thongs to kind of seat, making a
narrow sled. With these they shot down
the long grass covered slopes a thousand
feet or more with fearful velocity. This
amusement was INDUCED in by the higher
classes mainly Another amusement
was rolling the Maka-hilli stone; which
was flat circular disk, made of some
hard stone, usually basaltic lava,
smoothed off and finely polised. The
game consisted in seeing who could roll
the stone the greatest distance.
The natives seldom wagered ANYTHING
worth mentioning in their games. Gam
bling was not a besetting sin with them.
They had a very complicated game of
checkers, and the young people played
marbles with o round bean that grows on
the island, though they know nothing
about flying kites. Their principal dance
was the hula-nuu and the simple hula,
which is the Hawaiian word for dancing.
The hula-nuu was and still is the
Hawaiian word for can can. The mis-
sionaries endeavored to abolish these
dances, but failed. The Hawaiians are
natural dancers; they must and will
dance. even if they have to dance the
hula-nuu. The laws of the aboriginal
islanders were based on traditional the
ocracy, and were transmitted from gen.
Grafton to generation by word of mouth
and through persons who were taken
when quite young and thoroughly edu-
Gated in them. They had high order of
knighthood, which has been revived
under the name of the Order of Oceanica.
An origin as old or older than that of
Freemasonry is claimed for it. The men,
bers must be native Hawaiians, although